# Second-Order Cybernetics **Domain:** Cybernetics / Epistemology / Systems Science **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Second-order cybernetics** is the cybernetics of observing systems. Where first-order analysis may model how an observer regulates an external system through feedback, second-order analysis includes the observer, model, distinctions, and purposes inside the system being described. Associated especially with Heinz von Foerster and developed through a wider lineage of cybernetic and constructivist thought, it asks how observation participates in producing the account on which action is based. ## Corpus Context This framework is central to [[journal/2010-11-07 - Silence and Non-Observation|Silence and Non-Observation]]: metrics change behavior, classifications change access, and a model can act on the world until the world increasingly resembles the model. ## See Also [[wiki/Cybernetics|Cybernetics]] · [[wiki/Observation|Observation]] · [[wiki/Feedback Loops|Feedback Loops]] · [[wiki/Model-Based Governance|Model-Based Governance]] · [[wiki/Epistemic Humility|Epistemic Humility]]